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A former Kentucky police officer has been sentenced to 33 months in prison following his conviction related to a raid that resulted in the death of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman fatally shot in her home.
Brett Hankison was found guilty last year by a federal jury of violating Taylor’s civil rights through the use of excessive force. The charge carried a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
The sentencing follows a request from the Trump administration to the judge for a one-day sentence for Hankison, a stance that notably contrasts with the approach taken by President Joe Biden’s administration in the case.
Hankison is the only officer to have been charged and convicted directly in connection with the heavily criticized raid.
Kelly Goodlett, another former officer, pleaded guilty to conspiring with a colleague to falsify the affidavit used to obtain a search warrant for Taylor’s residence and to conceal their actions after her death. Her sentencing is scheduled for next year.
Upon completion of his prison term, Hankison will be subject to three years of supervised release.
Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, and attorneys representing the family addressed the media after the sentencing on Monday.
“I think the judge did the best she could with what she had to work with,” Ms. Palmer stated, while also expressing criticism of federal prosecutors who had advocated for a reduced sentence.
Kenneth Walker, Taylor’s boyfriend who was present in the apartment during the raid, conveyed his “gratefulness for the small piece of justice that we got.”
Following her death and the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, Taylor became a prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement.
She was killed after plainclothes officers executed a “no-knock” search warrant at her residence, entering her apartment in the early morning hours while she and Walker were asleep.
Authorities believed Taylor’s former boyfriend was utilizing her home to conceal narcotics.
Walker discharged a single shot when the police forcibly entered, striking one officer, Sgt. John Mattingly, in the leg. Walker stated that the officers did not identify themselves as law enforcement, leading him to believe they were intruders.
The three officers responded with gunfire, discharging 32 bullets into the apartment.
Hankison fired 10 shots into the apartment, stating during the trial that he did so to protect fellow officers.
None of Hankison’s bullets struck anyone, but they did penetrate a neighboring property, where a pregnant woman, a five-year-old, and a man were sleeping.
Prosecutors argued that Hankison acted recklessly and “violated one of the most fundamental rules of deadly force: If they cannot see the person they’re shooting at, they cannot pull the trigger.”
Outside the courthouse, protesters awaiting the verdict blocked the streets, chanting Taylor’s name. Several individuals, including Taylor’s aunt, Bianca Austin, were detained by police.
In early November 2024, Hankison was convicted on one count of civil rights abuse.
“His use of deadly force was unlawful and put Ms. Taylor in harm’s way,” stated then Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, in a statement. “This verdict is an important step toward accountability for the violation of Breonna Taylor’s civil rights, but justice for the loss of Ms. Taylor is a task that exceeds human capacity.”
Days after Hankison’s conviction, Donald Trump won re-election – a political shift that meant the sentencing recommendation would come not from the Biden administration, which brought the charges, but from the Trump-led justice department.
Last week, that recommendation – a request for Hankison to serve one day in prison – stunned some, including Taylor’s family.
“Every American who believes in equal justice under the law should be outraged,” attorneys for the family said. “Recommending just one day in prison sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of Black Americans with near-total impunity.”
In its sentencing request, the justice department argued that although Hankison was involved in “executing the warrant” during the deadly raid, he did not shoot Taylor “and is not otherwise responsible for her death”.
The justice department also said that additional prison time “would simply be unjust under these circumstances”.
Ordinarily, sentencing recommendations are signed by lawyers involved in the case or career justice department employees who deal with sentencing requests.
In this case, Trump’s appointee to run the Civil Rights Department, Harmeet Dhillon, signed the recommendation.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has made rolling back Biden-era policies a priority, particularly at the justice department.
In May, the justice department began the process of dismissing lawsuits brought against the Louisville and Minneapolis police departments following controversy over high-profile police killings and brutality, including that of Taylor.
Investigations into police constitutional violations in other cities such as Memphis and Phoenix were also ended.
The justice department criticised the Biden administration for enacting “sweeping” oversight agreements “that would have imposed years of micromanagement” of local police by federal courts.
During Biden’s tenure, the justice department opened civil investigations into 12 state and local law enforcement agencies.
In four of those – in Louisville, Minneapolis, Phoenix and Lexington, Mississippi – the department issued reports of systemic police misconduct.
While accountability agreements were made with some of the police departments, they were not formally enacted.
These changes have also come amid a mass exodus from the justice department.
In the Civil Rights Division alone, the division of the department that made the Hankison sentencing recommendation, about 70% of attorneys have left since Trump was inaugurated, reports say.
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